I am Pallavi, currently a third-year doctoral candidate in public administration at Florida International University, Miami. My roots are accredited to a small village in Northern India, where huge educational disparities and ignorance exist to educate a girl child, I have indeed come a long way to present my thoughts. My mother’s profile was of a teacher in a rural primary school, and it was her foremost priority to educate her daughters despite the prevailing scarcity of adequate infrastructure and resources at the time. My identity both scholastic and feminine took shape during those formative years of life. I realized the importance of education as a transforming tool to shape and uplift societies, specifically, the critical role of a woman in founding and developing societies. My interest of intrigue was always to contribute and engage on issues which have a substantial positive impact on people’s lives.
In my previous public service work in India, I was involved with UNDP-Government of India project on Leadership Development in Indian Public Service. It was during this time; I got an opportunity to write a research paper on “An Agenda for Servant Leadership Culture in Indian Public Service, which currently relates to my doctoral dissertation research on Servant Leadership in Local Governments in the United States. The interest in pursuing an academic career in Public Administration field stems from my previous research and teaching experience in India. Also, reading a couple of outstanding books viz. “How to Change the World – Social Entrepreneurs and the Power of New Ideas” (Bornstein, 2004) and “The End of Poverty – How Can we Make it Happen in our Life Time” (Sachs, 2005), left an indelible impression to chose servant leadership as my dissertation research topic.
The Greenleaf Scholars program comes to me as an opportunity to network with renowned scholars in the Servant Leadership field. It will give an exposure to the cutting-edge research and practice on servant leadership. Besides, it would shape up my motivation and serve as an impetuous source in my scholarly endeavors in the field of servant leadership. Post my doctoral studies, I intend to establish a public service leadership research center in India. The center will be driven by the vision to integrate the wisdom of East and West in servant leadership development.